The Inevitable Color Barrier In Baseball

The oldest of the four major professional sports leagues in the United States, baseball has been integrated within us since it was founded in 1869. Major League Baseball (MLB) is a sport that drew nearly 24 million people in terms of TV viewership for the 2016 World Series between the Chicago Cubs & Cleveland Indians. The MLB is made up of 30 teams spread evenly between two leagues, the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The World Series, which is a best-of-seven championship series, determines the supreme team in all of baseball and can be traced back to 1903. Before television came around, baseball is what Americans would do on a consistent basis, it was literally how we passed the time. This is a sport that is in our bloods,
The most prominent example of this in connection to baseball and progression is Jackie Robinson, who broke the color barrier that existed within baseball in 1947. As soon as he entered the professional league, he faced a fire storm of insults as well as threats due to the fact that he was African American. Robinson persevered through these terrifying obstacles and inspired multiple generations due to his courage. In fact, the breaking of the inevitable color barrier in baseball helped pave the way for the Civil Rights Movement which started around 1954. One of the many reasons why Jackie Robinson’s strength was tested was because he was not allowed to respond to the abuse he faced. This exemplifies the fact that we do not need to use our words in order to make a difference, a prime example of baseball being integrated into American culture. Now, baseball is as diverse as any other professional sport and a multitude of ethnicities are represented within the game
10 years later the total attendance by fans of the MLB was measured at an astounding 72,968,953, which is averaged out at just under 31,000 fans per game. Furthermore, data collected by Statista shows that in 2004 the average annual revenue per team in Major League Baseball was around 142.37 million dollars. Fast forward all the way to 2016 and MLB teams were taking in an average of 300.9 million in revenue through ticket sales, promotions, as well as merchandise sales. In 2016, the combined revenue of all Major League Baseball teams was 9.03 billion U.S. dollars. It is without a doubt that baseball will soon become a 10-billion-dollar industry by the end of either the 2017 or 2018 season. While is it possible that the revenue earned may level out at some point, this by no means would diminish baseball or its presence within our